Generation Startup produced by Creative Breed is a documentary featuring six recent college graduates as they work to grow their own businesses ranging from tech to food.
The flick follows their entrepreneurial journeys—building their companies from the ground up in Detroit, Michigan. Shot over the course of 17 months, the documentary gives viewers insight into the ups and downs of the early stages of founding a brand. Having been featured at film festivals nationwide, Generation Startup has been making the festival circuit nationwide and is set to make its Los Angeles debut Friday, September 30th.
Meet The Entrepreneurs
1. Brian Rudolph founded the company Banza at age 24. Spurred by his disappointment with the existing options for nutritious pastas, Brian set out to create a version that he actually liked. His quest lead to his creation of the first-ever chickpea pasta resulting in the launch of Banza with his brother in 2014.
2. Avery Hairston is the first full-time employee of Banza. Avery founded the nationally recognized environmental charity RelightNY while he was in high school and also helped his brother launch The Nugget Spot restaurant while he was in college. His entrepreneurial spirit and love of food encouraged Avery to move to Detroit to work for Banza in August 2014
3. Dextina Booker moved to Detroit in August 2015 and began working with Rock Ventures —an organization that worked to help foster and finance the growth of startups and non-profits in Detroit. Her involvement with startups coupled with her love of creating lead Dextina to startup company Shinola where she works as a Mechanical Engineer creating Shinola Audio Products.
4. Labib Rahman moved to Detroit in August 2014 to work as the product manager and first employee at Mason, a tablet and mobile phone startup company. A true innovator, Labib co-founded Madella Medical to help develop a more user-friendly platform for digital health records while still in college and has also built an android app to help guide childbirth professionals in developing worlds through safer deliveries. In early 2016, Labib took a job as a product manager at established company IPC Systems and is currently working with his brother to launch a startup with the goal of connecting clothing manufacturers in the US to factories with humane labor practices in Bangladesh where he spent much of his young life.
5. Kate Catlin moved to Detroit in 2013 and began working at a startup company that provides tech training called Grand Circus. After seeing what an impact technological knowledge had on students, Kate was inspired to further her own tech education and learned to code through the Detroit Labs Apprenticeship program; where she now works in business development. With a commitment to closing the gender gap in the worlds of tech and startups, Kate launched Women Rising in 2014 to share her mission of attracting and retaining women in tech-related fields.
6. Max Nussenbaum is the CEO of a company called Castle which takes an innovative high-tech approach to property management. Max initially moved to Detroit in 2012 to do marketing, design and web development for the startup Are You A Human. In 2013, Max teamed up with Tim Dingman, Scott Lowe, and Sean Jackson to buy an abandoned mansion in Virginia Park. The company Castle came about while Max, Tim, and Scott working together to renovate the property which now houses seven entrepreneurs and two companies.